A/N- Because plot-bunnies (Buneary? Plot-Buneary?) are evil creatures and Lolishotashipping is cute. Also...no champion is perfect.
"Battle me."
Steven let the words hang in the air for a few seconds before spitting out his automated response. "No."
"Why?"
The ex-champion made a point of not looking up from his work. He did not battle anymore. There were public statements, press conferences, and warnings. There was an honest effort to make the point clear. "I don't battle anymore," he reiterated, silently bemoaning the time that had clearly gone to waste broadcasting his retirement.
Skarmory gave a snort of indignation from his place on the windowsill.
Steven shot the metal bird a look. Traitor.
I will rip your intestines out and feed them to my young, the feisty bird glared back. Nevermind that the Skarmory had no young to speak of. He couldn't speak, but the pokemon was confident that his rebuttal had gotten across. The Skarmory then huffed before settling down into a sleeping position. He make special care not to totter on the edge of the window. No use risking further disrespect.
The man sighed before returning to his paperwork.
"Correction," the other trainer currently invading his personal space jarred in, "you only battle if you feel like it."
Without answering the former champion pinched the bridge of his nose. Wallace would be receiving a strongly worded – no. He would rile up Skarmory and tell it to have at his dear friend's pompous Milotic. How the bird hated it so.
"Where did you get that idea?" Steven drawled absently, almost sarcastically.
"Wallace told me,"
Of course he did.
"that you will challenge a trainer every once in a while."
"Skarmory gets restless," he rebuffed.
The bird refused to acknowledge him with an accusatory look. It was implied.
Even without the bird's input the challenger glared at him pointedly. No, he had not necessarily turned around to face them but the look was felt nonetheless. Steven sighed.
"Key words being I challenge them," he stressed. Please go away now.
There was the echoed clank of a pokeball hitting the floor behind him. He cursed this person's inability to take a hint. Only when hot breath pushed his Devon Corp papers away did he turn around.
Steven almost impressed himself upon locking eyes with a Garchomp and matching its glare. Then noting that it was a horrible, disturbing idea to do so, he dropped the seething look to the dragon type's trainer.
A chuckle bubbled up that the man killed in his throat. She obviously was not trying to be intimidating. Even if she was aiming for indignantly cute champion Cynthia looked for the all world like a huffy Jigglypuff – which in his opinion was neither adorable nor threatening.
But it did mean she was determined not to let the issue go.
He turned his head slightly to gaze longingly at his discarded pen. Surely the matter would have to drop if the pen ended up somewhere unpleasant? In the interest of chivalry Steven was almost prepared to put it through his own hand. How considerate.
The current champion cleared her throat at his distracted look. Not only was she unused to being ignored, the fact that a pen garnered more interest was downright insulting. She was a female champion – the female champion! And if the tabloids were to be believed she was stunning.
Maybe Steven was gay? There was absolutely nothing wrong with that of course, but in order to be such good friends with Wallace maybe one would have to be even more…invested in the relationship?
It was impolite but her resentment made her blurt it out anyway. "Are you gay?"
He stared at her blankly. Where in good Arceus's name had that even come from?
"I mean," Cynthia blanched, "are you homosexual?"
"What?"
"With Wallace?"
Steven paused to look longingly at Skarmory's sharp feathers. Wonderfully, usefully sharp feathers. The rather frustrated bird leered at him. Steven then shook his head. His stomach turned from having to trudge through a conversation he never wanted to be involved in to begin with. He really needed to start locking his door.
"No. I'm not."
Both trainers paused, Cynthia twirling a finger in her gold-spun hair.
"Battle me?" She repeated helplessly.
The silver haired man gave her an unimpressed look. Honestly, he grew up in an office building – he had seen women use their charms to get what they wanted. He honestly had thought Cynthia above that. Maybe she was desperate. A nagging thought made him feel a little guilty for not granting her the battle. Steven steeled himself in the thought that he had principles to uphold, guilt or no guilt.
Even as she tried and failed to pull off feminine wiles her recently released Garchomp towered behind her. Steven almost snickered. She was a stunning woman, there was no denying that, but her stubbornness highlighted why her signature pokemon was not a Lopunny.
He noted to never make the mistake of underestimating her.
"No," he repeated with a voice as calm as the first of his repetitions.
Skarmory snorted once again. Steven silently thanked the bird for its support. Sarcastically.
"Why do you want to battle me?" He asked curiously upon noticing the fire in her eyes.
Cynthia dropped her hair from around her finger. A more natural, pensive look crossed her face. Steven noted that when she wasn't trying so hard the woman could be attractive.
She bit the inside of her cheek. "I already beat Wallace," the woman offered.
Steven shook his head. "Not every trainer who beats Wallace challenges me," he pointed out. Not that too many trainers beat Wallace. Just…less trainers than the ones who had defeated Steven. In all fairness Wallace held the champion title for a longer period by this point so more defeats was to be expected. It wasn't even that many.
"You gave Wallace his position," the woman tossed out.
The steel-type master raised an eyebrow.
"I want to see if I can beat you."
"Many trainers want to do that."
"I want to see where I stand in the list of recent champions."
"Go battle Red."
A shudder passed through them both. Steven corrected himself. "My apologies. Battle Blue."
"I did."
"Alder?"
"A little while ago."
"Wallace?"
"I already said so."
"…Lance?"
"Steven!" Cynthia sputtered, exasperated. Everyone had battled Lance. The man was bloodthirsty.
He deadpanned at the woman. "Why do you want to battle all of us so badly?"
"Isn't that normal for a champion to see where they stand?"
"No. We like to think we're all equal. It helps to dissuade regional superiority," Steven pointed out. "And I don't think that you're trying to prove Sinnoh superior, because I have faith that you're simply not that kind of person. You're better than that. Nonetheless, that means that you're trying to beat us all for you. Why is that?"
Cynthia shifted through a gauntlet of emotions. Shame that he pointed out that she really wasn't supposed to battle the other champions, even if she tried to do so in private. There was pride in his high opinion of her (because thinking that you're not a terrible person counts as a high opinion – quiet, you), and rolling into a stoic look as the fire in her eyes flared.
"I want to prove that the first female champion is just as good," she hissed. "The tabloids put me down as more 'female' and less 'champion'," she explained, making it a point to emphasize with air quotations. Then her countenance fell and Steven watched her flame whisper down to an ember.
He stood up and touched her arm. "If you were doing it for them," he began quietly, "you would've publicized it."
Cynthia watched him silently with dulled gray eyes, neither leaning into his touch nor pulling away. Her Garchomp watched her trainer carefully even as her growl died in her throat. "Then I'm doing it for me," she whispered.
"You don't have to."
"I want to."
"No you don't."
A pause.
"I need to."
Steven looked over the young champion carefully. No, certainly not the youngest, but he had never considered what it must be like being the first female champion. Even during his restricted reign he was rather average as far as champions went – a male who specialized in one type. Though he begrudged being praised as Hoenn's golden boy it was hardly something to be insecure about.
And one would think that Cynthia would lack reasons to be insecure.
"No," Steven answered finally, taking his hand off her arm.
The woman surprised herself at the loss she felt upon loosing his steady support. It was really nothing to dawdle on compared to the frustration at his denial. He had figured it out. If he understood then he should help, Cynthia reasoned. She glared, and Garchomp growled.
"You should have more confidence than this," he said, meeting her eyes steadily. The fire was coming back. "Even if you defeat us all you're going to have to keep challenging us to check. And what happens when you loose?"
Not if. When. Cynthia shivered.
"I don't know," she admitted, feeling small. Her eyes dropped.
Steven waited until she met his eyes again. "A strong trainer is one who believes that they are the best they can be. Strong trainers always get better in order to improve themselves and their partners. We all battle for the pure thrill of it," he said fiercely.
"Then why did you quit?" She cut in.
His rigid stance shuddered and relaxed. He smiled wistfully and looked to Skarmory on the windowsill. The bird loved the thrill of the battle more than any other pokemon on his team. He leveled a look at his trainer, curious to see him go on.
The silver hair trainer collected himself on his pokemon's gaze. "It wasn't what we wanted anymore," he sighed, "it became something we had to do instead of something we loved." Steven nodded to Garchomp. "I think that you and your pokemon still love it though. Don't ruin it."
Cynthia looked to her pokemon and rubbed the dragon's neck. She rumbled out a purr and leaned into her trainer's touch. "Maybe then," Cynthia mused, "we should take a break."
Steven focused back on the woman. "For how long?"
"A little while," the champion mused. "Just to help us get our priorities straight. I think I'll call Caitlin and see if her villa is available to stay in during the warmer months. Unova is nice this time of year." She let out a shivering breath before meeting the former champion's eyes once more. "Thank you."
Steven smiled. "Not a… mmph?" Cynthia stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his, effectively cutting off his response. She smiled afterwards before turning on her heel and gesturing for Garchomp to follow her out of his house. The dragon-type followed with a sound reminiscent of a snicker.
"Thanks again," the woman called out as she left. Steven stuttered and pressed the tips of his fingers to his lips.
Cynthia finally got her battle in Unova's tournament.
Steven figured he won when he finally returned her thanks.
A/N-
Cynthia sure takes a lot of vacations, doesn't she?
There's absolutely no way it could have been easy to be the first female Champion. I mean, she absolutely stunning. Have you seen the fanart? I think in the Pokemon world stuff like that would be a weirdly harsh blow to her self-confidence. She wasn't meant to be a 'sexy' Champion, I feel like she was the strong female trainer all the little girls needed.
And Lolishota. Cause that couple (despite the dumb name) is cute.
Like it? Hate it? Review please! I don't know if any other fans exist if they only read and leave~.